Dear members,
It has been a hectic term at school, with a wide range of activities as well as a visit from the Education Review Office that I will report on in my next update. Here is the latest news and as always if there is anything else that you would like reported on please let me know.
Events
The Annual General Meeting of the Old Boys Association saw changes to the Committee as inaugural President Bill Holland stood down and Richard Craven was elected in his place. Matt Billett, who has been our Secretary since inception has also stood down after 5 years sterling service to the Association.
At the AGM long-serving staff member Fred Newton was inducted as a Life Member of the Association – the 9th person to be so honoured.
Annual Dinner & Sports Day – September 19th
Basketball, football, hockey, rugby & volleyball matches against the currentschool first teams will be contested on Friday afternoon, before dinner in the evening. A good number of tables have been purchased already so get your mates together to support our main event of the year. Leading New Zealand artist Nigel Brown will be recognised as our Old Boy of the Year, while Ryan Johnson will make a very interesting guest speaker. At school Ryan was in the 1st XV rugby and rowing 8 before heading to university to study marine biology. He has become one of the world’s foremost authorities on great white sharks, with TV documentaries on the Discovery Channel and National Geographic.
Book your tickets on www.tbcoba.org.nz or get in touch with me for any further information.
Winter Sports Tournament week is almost upon us. It is timely then to inform you about where you can see some TBC sporting action during the week of September 1st to 5th.
Football 1st XI NZSS Tournament @ Park Island, Napier
Hockey 1st XI Rankin Cup in Palmerston North
Hockey 2nd XI Galletly Cup @ Lloyd Ellsmore Park, Auckland
Hockey Under 15 Tanner Cup @ St. Pauls Collegiate, Hamilton
Rugby Under 15 Palmerston North
Rugby Under 14 Colquhon Trophy, Hastings
Basketball Senior A Regional qualifier @ ASB Arena, Tauranga, Sept. 3rd to 6th
Basketball Junior NZSS zone 1 & 2 finals @ ASB Arena, Aug. 31st – Sept. 2nd
Underwater Hockey NZSS in Rotorua, Sept. 4th – 7th
Indoor Bowls NZSS, Wellington, Aug. 31st - Sept. 1st
Duathlon NZSS, Taupo, August 31st
Swimming NZSS, Wellington, September 5th – 7th
TBC Sport
Super 8
Winter codes are building up towards their respective tournament weeks. Footballwere placed 3rd at their Super 8 tournament, while the Hockey XI were defeated in the final of their Super 8 by Palmerston North BHS. Unfortunately, at our quadrangular tournament the following week a couple of season ending injuries disrupted their tournament preparation. At that tournament Westlake BHS, Kings College and TBC all ended with 3 wins, while Super 8 winners PNBHS headed home without a win!
The 1st XV season is over after an entertaining 47-34 loss to Rotorua BHS in the BOP qualifying for the top 4 competition. The side was very competitive throughout the season, however a number of close losses saw them finish 7th for 2014.
Squash
Our squash players have just completed an impressive 3-peat of national titles,winning the tournament in a canter. Only Christchurch BHS were able to take a game off them all tournament, with TBC winning the final 4-1. Unsurprisinglythree team members were subsequently named in the NZSS team – Josh Oakley, Jamie Oakley and Alex Revington.
Surfing
TBC surfers faced big swells at Raglan when they contested the national champs recently. Consistent efforts from all of our surfers saw the team finish third overall, with best performer Jordan Griffin placing second in the Under 18 event.
Gymnastics
Year 13 student Henry Smith performed with distinction at the recent NZSS gymnastics competition, emerging champion in the A-grade competition.
Basketball
TBC Basketball scooped the titles at the BOP Championships earlier in the month. The Senior A team were untroubled in taking their 3rd Division 1 title in a row, while the Senior Bs backed up that performance with victory over Katikati College to take out the Division 2 award. In the junior divisions the Junior A side beat a bigger Otumoetai side to win their grade, while the Junior B team won the Division 2 title to complete the clean sweep.
Hockey
Three current 1st XI players have recently returned from the National Under 18 tournament, where Midlands gained the silver medal in the 8 team competition. Head Prefect Hamish McGeorge, Wade Bennett and Denym Clarke were joined by old boys Joseph Lyons and John Preece to give a strong TBC flavour to the side.
Motocross
TBC riders were prominent at the Auckland Secondary School Champs held at Mercer this past weekend. Riders placed 2nd, 3rd & 4th in a very competitive 250f class, with Johvann Phillips the top performer.
Waterpolo
Sean McKenzie has been selected in the New Zealand Under 16 side.
Two TBC lads, Adam McKenzie & Liam Moffat, were part of the Tauranga club team that won the national under 14 boys’ title.
Old Boy Sports
Aussie Rules
Adam Simpson is flying the TBC flag at the AFL International Cup in Melbourne, where he is competing for the NZ Hawks in this 3 yearly competition against teams from around the globe. To date the team has dominated its opposition with a 162-0 win against the Swedish Elks and 188-0 victory over China. The side was then beaten by PNG but rallied to take the bronze medal from South Africawith a one point victory.
Hockey
Commonwealth Games competitor Andy Hayward was back in Tauranga and spoke at assembly about his Games experience. The 180 test veteran and 4th top goalscorer (75) in NZ hockey history is off back to Europe almost immediately, where he will play league hockey in the UK. He is looking forward to the Olympics in Rio in 2016.
Cricket
Old Boys from TBC are going to be more prominent in Northern Districts first class cricket plans in the 2014/15 season. Debutants from last year Joe Carter and Bharat Popli have both won contracts, joining captain Daniel Flynn. Kane Williamson has his national contract and recently scored 189 for Yorkshire, who lead the top division of the English Championship.
Basketball
Tauranga basketball is on the upswing, with the Tauranga City Marinerscompeting strongly in the inaugural SAS Sports Central Basketball League. Old boys Ashton McQueen and Matt Fullerton, who were in our first 5 last season, are important members of the side.
Rugby
A couple of TBC Super 15 stalwarts will not feature in the 2015 edition as they head off overseas to ply their trade. Tanerau Latimer has signed to play for theJapanese side Toshiba Brave Lupus after 7 seasons and over 100 games for the Chiefs, while Jarrad Hoeata has a 3 year contract with the Cardiff Blues. Another TBC old boy in the UK is Daniel Braid, who captained the Sale Sharks in the 2013/14 season.
The Steamers season has begun with losses to Southland and Tasman – Old Boys included for the season are Nathan Harris, Dan Hollinshead, Carl Axtens, Te Aihe Toma, while in the development team are David Smart, Aaron Carroll, Jeff Thwaites, Nick Evemy, Steve Honey and Hamish Boyce.
We have had some good rugby playing gappies from the UK in the last few years and I have just heard from Andy Vilk that after representing England at 7s and a professional career in Italy he has now been appointed Italian 7s coach and is hoping to see them qualify for Rio.
Ruaridh McConnochie was the first of our gappies from Cranbrook School in Kent where I taught in 2010 and he has just returned to England from Rio with agold medal won in the University 7s competition. On the strength of his performances there, Ruaridh has been called into the full England set up for a 2 week training camp. Ruaridh played fullback for Rangataua in 2011.
Sailing
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke retained their 49er European title in Helsinki and then headed to Rio for the test event 2 years out from the Olympics, which they also won.
Football
The Tauranga City United side, which features a number of TBC old boys, clinched promotion to the Northern Region Division 1 a couple of weeks back. With a resounding win at the weekend they claimed the title, with Andrew Cooper completing a first half hat trick and finally scoring 4, while Josh Nelson got abrace in the 6-0 victory.
Old Boys Arts
Jeremy Redmore has just released his long awaited solo album “Clouds are Alive”. After a very successful time as lead singer with Midnight Youth Jeremy is now looking to forge a solo career.
Shane Cortese has just been seen on local screens in a 2 hour “Nothing Trivial” special. The popular show was abruptly cut in 2013 and this programme tied up some loose ends with the potential for further series in the future. Shane has been following work opportunities in Las Vegas and Australia in recent months.
James Rolleston, who starred in the highly regarded movie “Boy” while at TBC, has been seen on movie screens in recent weeks in the film “ The Dark Horse”,which also stars Cliff Curtis, Karl Urban & Keisha Castle Hughes.
Dylan Frewin has returned to Tauranga having completed a degree in performing art, majoring in musical theatre. He has been instrumental in setting up the Mauao Performing Arts Centre, where he teaches theatre and drama and will look to perform some of his own work.
Old Boys Politics
Former TBC students Ben Rickard and Todd Muller are both standing for parliament in this year’s election. Ben is standing for the UnitedFuture party in the Bay of Plenty electorate, and has also been placed 5th on the party’s list. Todd Muller is standing for National and is the favourite to win the seat and enter parliament as MP for Bay of Plenty.
Old Boys Adventures
Josh & Zac Lyon have decided to take up the challenge of walking across the four largest icecaps on the planet (4 Caps Challenge) and have got $ for $ support from Spark to assist them in their endeavours. Follow their expedition on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/FourCaps.
All the best for now,
Rob Leslie.
